ZOF HO m_m < ImemU ?dbdbdbsdb« . aD‘DdDdDQk aiflp- "1 >‘fi"x . . <>4>< x D . oD« . . %4 )“rd1 .,1 - 13.54£ . r, }1>{ 49.515 }1 4>4>4D<| v !9 bdbdb )4 .. I THE TRINITY THE TRINITY HOW NOT TO BE A HERETIC STEPH EN BU L LIVANT Paulls‘t Press Nihil obstat: Rev. Andrew Cole 2 5th April 2014 Imprimatur: Most Rev. Malcolm McMahon, OP Archbishop-Elect of Liverpool Bishop of Nottingham 30th April 2014 Drawing on p. 14 courtesy of the author The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1 989 and 199 3. by the Division of Christian Education of the N ational Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Cover photo by Neil Cippon / beyerstudio.com Cover and book design by Lynn Else Copyright © 2015 by Stephen Bullivant All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system. or transmitted in any form or by any means. electronic. mechani- cal. photocopying. recording. scanning. or otherwise. except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act. without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, Paulist Press, 99 7 Macarthur Boulevard. Mahwah. N] 07430. (201) 82 5-7300. fax (201) 825-8345. or online at www.paulistpress.com. Library of Congress Control N umber: 20149601 66 ISBN 9 78-0-8091-49 3 3-9 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-58768-521-7 (e-book) Published by Paulist Press 99 7 Macarthur Boulevard Mahwah. New Iersey 07430 www.paulistpress.c0m Printed and bound in the [*nited States of America We can get no idea of the one God other than by really believing in Father and Son and Holy Spirit. —St Hippolytus of Rome (Against Noetus. 14) For nothing is so magnificent in God's sight as pure doctrine, and a soul perfect in all the dogmas 0f the truth. —St Gregory of Nazianzus (Oration 42. 8) We are now t0uching...a realm in which any falsely-directed attempt to gain too precise a knowledge is bound to end in disastrous foolish- ness. —]oseph Ratzinger (Introduction to Christianity. 1 14) CON'I‘EN'I‘S Acknowledgments ......................................... ix Introduction: Supreme Simplicity ............................ 1 1. More Than Words ........................................ 7 2. Meet the Trinity ........................................ 19 3. Rereading the Old Testament ............................. 3 3 4. God a la Modes ......................................... 47 5. True God from True (10d ................................. 6 1 6. Why Not Three Gods? ................................... 79 9 5 7. Three What? ........................................... Afterward: How to Be an Ecumenist ........................ 113 Further Reading ......................................... 1 1 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the opening paragraphs of On the Trinity, Augustine writes of having “undertaken, not so much to discuss with authority what I have already learned. as to learn by discussing it with modest piety" (I, 8). While both my modesty and piety are for others to judge. this is certainly how I feel about teaching the Trinity to five years’ worth of second-year undergraduates at St. Mary’s U niversity. Twickenham. If any of them can bear to read this book. they will realize just how deeply indebted it is to those hours we spent discussing everything from perichoresis to Pinocchio to pictures of my mother. I am spe- cially grateful to the students whom I taught during the writing of it into the present format: Marcus Bogle. Julia Brown, Jack Bull, Sacha Bynoe, William Currie, Seamus Cussen. Rebeccah Donohue, Berna Durcan, Siobhan Eaton, Katie Hall, Megan Irvine, Ryan Jones, Kieren Kay, Gabby Lastrapes, Claire Negri, Daniel Nunnen, Joe Phoenix. James Roberts, Joanne Rolling, Iohn Stayne, and Olivia Yabsley. In the very latter stages, elements were also road tested on my systematic theology masters’ students: Joanna Bogle; Deacon Jim Colefield; Sr. Maria Natella. OP: Nicola O’Callaghan: Fr. Julius Otoaye. MSP; and Hannah Young. Sincere thanks to you all. Also at St. Mary’s, my colleagues have created a fun and cre- ative context out of which to produce something like this. I will sin— gle out just four in particular here. Rev. Dr. Paul Rowan persuaded me to teach Trinity in the first place; Professor Peter Tyler convinced me it would still be possible to write books, somehow. even if I took over directing the MA program (which I did, and he was right): Dr. Maureen Glackin unfailingly extended sympathy. patience. warmth. encouragement. and tea during an exciting but difficult year. and Francis Campbell. among much else. has made St. Mary's an even T! “C 'I‘RINI'I‘Y more exciting and fulfilling place not simply to do Catholic theology but. much more importantly, to be a Catholic theologian. In addition to the students mentioned above. other friends were generous enough to offer both improving criticisms and motivating compliments on drafts at various rough stages: Br. Ioseph Bailham. ()P; Doug Beaumont; Ioanna Bullivant; and Fr. Gregory Murphy, 01’. At Paulist Press, I am hugely grateful to Donna Crilly, Diane Flynn, Mary Ann Carey. Bob Byrns, and. above all, Paul McMahon and Fr. Mark-David Janus, CSP, for their help and encouragement at all stages of bringing this work to Iruition—a process begun, ulti- mately. with Fr. Mark-David’s generously giving a stranger some free books at the CTSA convention in June 201 1. “I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matt 2 5:3 5). Although this is the second of my books to be published by Paulist. it is the first to be written especially for them: the first, I hope, of a great many more to come. Finally, I dedicate this book to my wife Joanna, who through- out this past year, as in every other year—though mystifyingly unbeknownst to her—“has done everything well” (Mark 7:37), as well as to our little daughters Grace and Alice: The human family. in a certain sense. is an icon of the Trinity because of its interpersonal love and the fruitful- ness of this love. (Pope Benedict XVI, “Angelus on the Feast of the Holy Family," 2 7 December 2009.) Stephen Bullivant Feast of St. [ohn Roberts December 2014 INTRODUCTION: SUPREME SIMPLICITY This is a simple book about an even simpler subject: the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. This must be simple for the Christian God is “supreme simplicity.”1 and the Trinity is the Church’s most basic description of who God actually is—and who he needs to be in order to save us. It is at the very heart of what Christians believe. and very little else in Christianity makes sense without it. To speak of. or pray to. God as Trinity is to use a kind of ancient abbreviation. It is a made-up word. a shorthand way of affirming three statements: 1. There is only one God. 2. The Father. the Son. and the Holy Spirit is each God. 3. The Father, the Son. and the Holy Spirit are not the same. The great majority of Christian believers would. I think. happily agree with each one of those sentences. They are easy enough to understand. They are not filled with weird-sounding jargon. like con- substantial or hypostasis. Furthermore. every one of them can be confirmed not just from Scripture, but also from the overwhelming witness of Christian faithful from the first century to the twenty— first. This last point is especially important, since the doctrine of the Trinity stems directly from the early Christians’ experiences of God. Contrary to popular belief, it is not something that theologians invented to suit their own ends. (As we shall note later. many Clever theologians tried to “get around” real trinitarian thinking. but could only do so by denying or downplaying one or more of the above 'I‘l llC 'I‘RINI'I‘Y statements). Simply put. the reason why Christians talk about God as Trinity is because God revealed himself to them as a Trinity: in their own lives. in the collective life of the Church. and through the Old and New Testaments. Why, then. do Christians not speak more confidently about the Trinity? In all denominations there are many dedicated, faith-and- works believers who feel uneasy when this subject comes up. It is not that they don’t believe that God is Trinity. because they do. (Large numbers of them. I am sure. would rather die than deny it.) The problem is rather that they are not quite sure of three things: what it means to say God is Trinity. why Christians are so certain that God must be, and how it could possibly make sense. This triple lack of confidence shows itself in several ways. Teachers and catechists attempt to dodge or skirt around the sub- ject. Perhaps they try not to mention the Trinity directly so as not to risk awkward questions. Or if it features unavoidably in their syllabi. they hunt desperately for a video. or ask someone else to take the Class. (When my wife and I went through the RCIA—the Catholic eatechetical program for adult converts—our otherwise well-versed team of lay teachers explained how they always try “to get a priest in to do the Trinity session") Meanwhile, ministers and pastors reg- ularly begin their sermons on Trinity Sunday with a half-joking dis- claimer that they’ve drawn the short straw this week. They then go on to talk about how. of course. the Trinity isn’t really something we can understand or explain—that it’s a mystery—and that we must accept it by faith alone. It is no wonder that so many churchgoers simply smile. or shrug. or perhaps even cringe. when asked about the Trinity by nonbelievers, or their own children. Disciples who can happily spend hours in person or (more often) online. enlightening strangers over the only correct meaning of this-or—that sentence in Ezra or Obadiah, swiftly run out of words when confronted with. “So how can God be both three and one?" Such coyness springs from what is. essentially. a praiseworthy instinct: a genuine desire not to say the wrong thing. Churchgoers recognize how central the Trinity is to Christian life and thought. They realize that to talk about the Trinity is to talk about the inner life of God almighty. And so. from fear of misrepresenting him with